Yak

Here's something new for me to try.

This is 100% Yak, handspun by Eva. 2 ply, 103 g, 412 m.

Yak is very very soft, leaning to the Qiviut side of the spectrum. It is low in elasticity and this is quite a fine yarn so not one that would ordinarily be a candidate for a pair of socks. Of course that wouldn't stop me from trying ;o)

Here's what I came up with:

I knit a strand of fine lycra concurrently through the entire knit. (That's the cone sitting on the floor and if you squint you may be able to see the fine strand going up and through the right eyelet and feeding along with the yarn. The feed while unwinding of yarn and lycra cause a plying of the two to occur as they are drawn along.

Feeding on the left, you can see a small spool of Wooly Nylon. Initially I was going to run this through the entire sock, but at the last moment changed my mind and used it only on the heels and toes. This picture was taken while knitting the heel.

 Here's another look, this time with the ribber removed (which I do just before knitting the toe).

Naturally I knit these for me.

Oops...ran short on toe of second sock. Finished off with a bit of Koigu.

 

Handspun by Eva

This is a handpun I got from my friend Eva a while back that I had parked and forgot to knit!

It is 50% Merino 50% Bamboo, 175g/429m. With the generous yardage I felt confident there would be enough for a pair of size Large, even with being on the heavier side of fingering weight.

I love the colours, as usual, and in particular I like the effect of stranding different colours together. 

On my monitor, there's quite a variation in colour tones amongst the photos. The top photo, in the skein, is Eva's from the original listing on Etsy. It is actually the closest to true of what I'm looking at. The overall grey-blue tint seems absent from my own photos.

I'm still in the midst of lambing here at the farm, and to boot had to get a new computer. I'm fiddling about between lambs trying to get the hang of Windows8 and to upgrade all my software that doesn't want to play nice with the new operating sys. 

I've gone back to a desktop PC, even though so many reviews have pronounced them dead, archaic, passe, and long gone. My last 'puter was a laptop and I was sure it would be truly portable. But experience prooved otherwise - I have so many things plugged into it, that unless I'm going on a trip, I rarely move it. As it result it actually occupies more real estate on my desk and a true desktop.

Miraculously, I bought the new desktop before the laptop completely died, so I haven't been in my usual horror filled panic about retrieving years of lost data. Rather, I'm poking away shifting things over, housekeeping and discarding as I get a moment here and there between lambings. 

Early mornings and late nights in the lambing barn have also prompted me to work on another skill:

Double shot of espresso, 4 oz frothed skim milk and a dash of cinnamon on the top. Who needs sleep!

Handspun Merino Mulberry

Here's another pair knit up from Eva's handspun sock yarn - this time a 3 ply Merino Mulberry Silk blend, 381.5m/98g.

I knit this pair in a size Small Plus  (= ~ Ladies 8-9 shoe) to a mid-calf length.

I used the 72 cylinder and 36 ribber on the Verdun 47, with a 1 x 1 cuff, then a 5 x 1 rib on the leg and instep.

The silk gives a very good strength to this yarn but I reinforced the heels and toes with wooly nylon for good measure.

I loves these colours...make me think of cinnamon (yum yum).

Handspun Merino Bamboo

I knit one of the lovely skeins of handspun from friend Eva in Germany:

This is 70% Merino and 30% Bamboo, 3 ply, 439m/102g in beautiful greens, blues and greys.

I knit a pair of Size Large using the 72 needle cylinder and 36 slot ribber on the Verdun 47. Reverse e-wrap selvedge on a 1x1 rib topper and the rest in stockinette. The bamboo content makes for a nice sturdy yarn and I further reinforced the heels and toes with wooly nylon.

Handspun by Eva

Here's some new handpsun I got from Eva's Etsy shop - Longnosed Yarn.

This 3 ply Merino Bamboo is 439m, 102g;

This 3 ply Merino Silk is 381.5m, 98g;

And lastly, this 2 ply YAK is 412m 103g.

I've never played with Yak before. Eva advises that the fibers are short and unelastic, and therefore not a making of a strong sock type yarn. Still, I was intrigued, so here it is and it is deliciously soft, My initial thought was to knit it with a strand of lycra and see what happens with a pair of socks. Now that I've laid my hands on its beauty, I don't know if I want to gamble on such an experiment or not. Maybe fingerless gloves would be a better idea.

Hmm. Will have to ponder that...

(Oh, and BTW - aren't those tags just the niftiest thing!)